Tony Stewart means business in chase for victories

Tony Stewart isn't just chasing one NASCAR title over the next three weeks, he's got the chance to win two.

Stewart is second in the Chase for the Sprint Cup driver's standings, just eight points behind championship leader Carl Edwards heading into Sunday's AAA Texas 500. Since he's a co-owner of his No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet along with Margaret Haas, he's also eight points behind Jack Roush in the owner's race.

As an owner-driver, Stewart has added responsibilities. For instance, this week he spent part of Wednesday announcing that Quicken Loans will be a partial sponsor for the team's No. 39 car driven by Ryan Newman.

“You can never put the business side of it on hold,” he told the Charlotte Observer of the team's decision to make the announcement in the midst of his title chase. “We knew all that going into it. It's like I've always said, you surround yourself with good people and it makes that job a lot easier.

“But, it's still a lot of work.”

Stewart, a two-time Sprint Cup champion, made the transition to ownership prior to the 2009 season, helping form Stewart-Haas racing. The team had immediate success qualifying two cars for the Chase in their first season. Last year only Stewart made the playoffs, but both cars were back in this year.

If Stewart wins the title, he'll be the first driver to own or co-own his championship car since Alan Kulwicki in 1992.

While the drivers get all the glory, NASCAR is a team sport and it's up to the owner to assemble the right group of talent from the crew chief on down and take care of the sponsorship deals to pay the bills.

Edwards, who had the chance to become a free agent after this season, decided to stick with Roush because he trusts his owner will do everything to get his car and team in tip-top shape.

He doesn't regret sticking with the team he's been associated with since he won rookie-of-the-year honours in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2003, rather than explore a possible lucrative deal with another team.

“I'm here because I'm fortunate enough that Jack Roush hired me and I choose to be here at Roush Fenway Racing,” the driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford said. “These last three races, the best way for me to put it, I wouldn't get in anyone else's car the last three races. I felt like I had the best engines, best crew, best crew chief, owner. I feel like I'm in the best position I can be in.

“That's why I'm here at Roush. So I guess for me it's really not worth revisiting and saying, ‘Hey, what would have happened if I announced something else?' Because I didn't. I announced that I'm staying here at Roush for all those reasons.”

Roush has been here before, winning owner titles in 2003 (Matt Kenseth's car) and 2004 (Kurt Busch's car). However he's coming off a rough 2010 when his top driver, Edwards, finished 11th in points and failed to win a race.

If Roush or the Stewart-Haas tandem do prevail when the season wraps up on Nov. 20 in Homestead, Florida, it will mark an end to a historic run by Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon.

The duo are the co-owners of the No. 48 car that Jimmie Johnson has piloted to five straight Sprint Cup titles. Johnson isn't mathematically out of it this season, but his 43-point deficit will be extremely difficult to overcome in three outings. Not only will he need three straight great results, Johnson needs the five drivers in front of him in the standings to falter.

Hendrick has owned or co-owned NASCAR's championship race car 10 times in the past 16 years. Although it's unlikely he'll add to that resume this year, he'll still have his fingerprints on the title if Stewart is victorious as Hendrick Motorsports provides engine and technical support to Stewart-Haas.

Meanwhile, the other two season-long points battles have long been determined.

Chevrolet ran away with the manufacturer's crown. With 16 wins to date, Chevy has just one fewer victory than Ford (seven), Toyota (five) and Dodge (five) combined. Chevy has 226 points, Ford has 177, Toyota 170 and Dodge 153.

Andy Lally with TRG Motorsports is the only contender for rookie of the year. His best finish this year was 19th in the Aaron's 499 at Talladega back in April.

• He said it: “This event is the crown jewel for the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Our drivers look forward to coming here. We, as a sanctioning body, look forward to coming here. It's a terrific event, great atmosphere, and the fans have been truly supportive.” - Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR's senior vice-president of racing operations, speaking Montreal this week about the Nationwide Series' annual stop in Canada at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

• This week: The Nationwide Series returns to the track for the first time since Oct. 14 this weekend with the O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway (Saturday, 12:55 p.m. ET, TSN2). The first stage of the Edwards-Stewart showdown is Sunday with the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, TSN).

pjames@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/pjames

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